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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28214421">Teething Day</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadsie/pseuds/Shadsie'>Shadsie</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alien Biology, Comedy, Fictional Holidays, Gen, Horde holiday, Humor, Imp goes through teething and no one is safe, a literal flying toddler, chaos and destruction, for a given measure of "holiday", set between seasons 2 and 3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 01:14:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,492</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28214421</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadsie/pseuds/Shadsie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Entrapta learns about the Fright Zone’s most anticipated (with terror) “holiday,” - Teething Day - the hard way.  It happens every year at just about a certain time:  Imp sheds last year’s choppers and grows new ones.  He spends the day easing it all by chewing anything he can get his little demon-baby hands on to shreds!  Soldiers prepare as for attack or hurricane.  Even the mighty Hordak fears this day.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>35</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Teething Day</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Inspired by a conversation about Imp on tumblr that got weird.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><strong>Teething Day <br/></strong><br/><br/>Entrapta’s early morning observations from the vents got her curious.  Soldiers were running around in disarray everywhere.  People were panicking and shouting at each other “to get the supplies ready!”  She hadn’t heard about any important missions lately requiring any kind of mass-troop movement, nor had she heard of any expectation of an attack.  Security had been stepped up noticeably.  The lockers in the cadets’ barracks looked like a prison room for how many chains, locks and ties were affixed around the lockers.  And there was some mysterious talk of “the gifts.”  <br/><br/>The scientist-Princess wondered if the talk of gifts referred to Horde-Mass, a winter holiday she’d learned about since coming to the Fright Zone (in which all of the troops would gather to have a ceremonial recitation of their contract of service and Hordak would present the active duty units with fresh socks).  But…wasn’t it just Hordak and the high command giving out things then?  The troops seemed to be talking about some other kind of gifts.  <br/><br/>She reported for her duties in the Sanctum after her latest observation-log to find Hordak looking slightly peaked.  His ears were tipped slightly down (not down enough to indicate sadness or pain, more one of his “frustrated” looks) and he was biting his lip.  <br/><br/>“What’s wrong?” she casually asked.  <br/><br/>Hordak narrowed his eyes and held a tiny object between the thumb and forefinger of his right hand.  Entrapta squinted until she caught its distinctive salmon-pink tone.  It was one of Imp’s upper canine-teeth.  <br/><br/>“It is upon us,” Hordak said darkly.  <br/><br/>“What is?”  Entrapta asked.  <br/><br/>Hordak clutched the tooth and turned on his heel, letting his cape flap.  “Teething Day,” he said with an edge.  <br/><br/>“Teething Day?”  <br/><br/>“Secure your tools,” Hordak said.  “Make sure everything you value is under lock and key.  It may be helpful to keep your most sensitive valuables on your person, but that does not always help.  I believe that Emily can fight for herself with some adequacy – he does not usually go after the drones, not since he got a little laser-burn one year…but generally speaking… your tools, your clothes, your furniture… and maybe even your flesh, it is imperative that you secure it today.  Force Captain Scorpia discovered the errant fang and has already informed the rest of the Fright Zone.  You may stay here with me, if you like, until the day is done.”  <br/><br/>“What are you talking about, Hordak?  You make it sound like we are bracing for an attack!”  <br/><br/>“We are.  And this will be your first.  It is Imp.  This happens every year around this time.”  <br/><br/></p><p>Entrapta looked at him quizzically, cocking her head.  “ Imp loses teeth?”  <br/><br/>“He loses them and re-grows them.  It is a quick and harrowing process and for one day out of the year, he utterly destroys everything he can get his hands on and mouth around to ease the irritation of teething.” <br/><br/>“But doesn’t he already…” <br/><br/>“More than usual!  I typically have to rebalance the budgets and logistics to order new armor, new boots… blankets, pillows, some of the weapons that cannot defend themselves…”  <br/><br/>Hordak walked to a drawer and pulled out a black and red scrap of tattered fabric.  It had a familiar metal collar, bent into strange configurations.  “This is last year’s cape.”  <br/><br/>“Why did you keep it?”  <br/><br/>Hordak balled up the destroyed article of clothing and tossed it into the air.  It floated as a shadow darted out and took it.  Entrapta heard sucking and tearing sounds.  <br/><br/>“He… can be distracted for a short time.”  Hordak suddenly grabbed Entrapta by the wrist.  She squeaked.  He put his body between her and the shadows and started trying to back her to the doors of the Sanctum.  “If we run now, we might escape.”  <br/><br/>“It’s just a baby teething!  I think you’re taking this way too seriousl-” <br/><br/>Entrapta felt a wind rush past her right pigtail.  Suddenly, her favorite hex-driver was missing and a certain winged child was flapping in front of her, writhing his tail and chewing it into a lump of useless slag.  <br/><br/>Her eyes went wide and she brought out a recorder.  “Fascinating!  It appears that Imp, Hordak’s genetic-construct, can bite through solid steel!  With his gums!”  <br/><br/>Imp dropped two halves of a destroyed hex-driver to the floor with a “Clang!”  Then he hissed at her.  <br/><br/>“Imp!” Hordak said in a scolding tone.  <br/><br/>The creature laughed and flew off, quick as a wink, to other parts of the Fright Zone.  <br/><br/>“You do not realize how fortunate you are,” Hordak told Entrapta.  <br/><br/>“I’M GONNA FOLLOW HIM!”  She squealed.  <br/><br/>“NO!”  <br/><br/>She gave chase after Imp and Hordak followed after her.  <br/><br/>“Hey, Hordak!” She called, “Do your teeth do that?  Do you have a yearly-shed?”  <br/><br/>“I most certainly do not!” Hordak yelled back, indignant.  “My teeth are indestructible and I have no need for something as infantile as teething!”  <br/><br/>“Etherian humans get two sets of teeth in our lifetimes!  Imp is… Is he like a shark?”  <br/><br/>“The yearly teething is… I am not sure how it happened!  I did not code for it.  It is a thing unique to him!  Get back here, Entrapta! Do you want your life to be forfeit?”  <br/><br/>“So much new data! Wahahhahaha!”  <br/><br/>She zipped up into a vent just before Hordak tried to do a desperate wrap-around grab of her.  His armor strained against his bones and muscles.  Ooh, all of this action was going to hurt later… <br/><br/>And Entrapta popped out in the main skiff-hanger to find panicked soldiers, armored up, clutching all manner of sticks, homemade dolls, rubber pet-toy bones, rope-kongs and old stained and tattered clothing.  They huddled together in fear, watchful and a group of them flat-out screamed as she jumped down before them.  <br/><br/>Scorpia strode out from behind a skiff.  “Easy, guys!  It’s just Entrapta!” <br/><br/>There was a collective sigh of relief.  <br/><br/>“Did you know that Imp is teething?”  Entrapta asked.  <br/><br/>She received a collective slow nod from all in attendance.  One short soldier (who was clutching a teddy-bear) took off his helmet.  Kyle shook his sweaty head and trembled.  “Teething Day… the most horrible day of the year.”  <br/><br/>“Aw, it can’t be that bad!  He destroyed my six-sided hex-driver, but I can always get another one.  Um… I hope.”  <br/><br/>“Miss Entrapta,” Kyle responded sheepishly, “You are very brave, but even the Force Captains fear this day more than they do combat.”  <br/><br/>There came a sudden, high-pitched screech and all of the soldiers cowered.  Scorpia took a defensive stance, brandishing a stun-baton.  “You won’t crack my exoskeleton this year!” she called.  <br/><br/>A little blue blur darted around the hangar.  As one, everyone threw their toys, sticks and dog-toys as they ducked and covered under the vehicles.  <br/><br/>Entrapta felt her hair caught up in a whirlwind.  She lashed several tendrils to one of the wall-anchors for the skiffs.  <br/><br/>In mere moments, torn apart toys and scraps of clothing pattered off the walls and the skiff-hulls.  Scorpia shielded Entrapta from getting bonked in the head with a segment of an especially large and heavy beast-bone that someone had offered up.  Scorpia’s eyes were pin-points and her breathing was heavy as Entrapta’s feet found the floor again.  <br/><br/>“I… I think he’s gone,” Scorpia said as they listened to the patter of wings exiting into another room.  <br/><br/>“Some holiday, I guess?”  Entrapta said breathlessly.  <br/><br/>“We… started offering up gifts,” Scorpia explained, “in hopes to distract the Imp from getting into our stuff.  It sometimes works.  Very hit or miss.  We can only hope that he doesn’t break the locks on the lockers.”  <br/><br/>As if on cue, the loud noise of rattling chains and torn-apart padlocks banging against locker doors and barracks-floors sounded from another room.  <br/><br/>Entrapta pondered the broken thigh-bone that almost hit her, picking it up in a lock of her hair.  “How long does Teething Day usually last?”  <br/><br/>“Too long!” Kyle complained.  <br/><br/>“Several hours,” Scorpia said.  “He usually peters out for a nap at around the 24-mark and by then the choppers are grown in.  Hordak managed to trap him in the Sanctum for 12 hours last year.  The fact that he managed to survive that long tells us that he’s tough!”  <br/><br/>“All hail Lord Hordak!” cried the soldiers.  <br/><br/>Suddenly, they were saluting.  Entrapta turned around.  There the object of their honor stood, a grim frown upon his face.  <br/><br/>“My apologies for his escape,” he said.  “As you were.  I will take care of the situation.”  <br/><br/>“Yes, Lord Hordak,” the troops said.  <br/><br/>From another part of the Fright Zone came the sounds of shattering glass and suddenly flowing liquid. Clouds of steam appeared in the open doorway.  Scorpia’s eyes were pin-points again.  Hordak’s ears dipped very low and back, showing their white outer edge as his pupil-less eyes went wide and he cringed.  <br/><br/>“Boss…” Scorpia said slowly, her breath barely a whisper.  “I think he got into the coffee-room.”  <br/><br/>Hordak trembled.  “Prime in Heaven help us all.” </p>
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